Drug Overdose Deaths In The U.S. Hit Record High [Infographic]

America's drug crisis is getting worse. According to newly published figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 70,237 deaths from drug overdoses across the United States last year, a record high. Between 2016 and 2017, the overall rate of overdose deaths increased 9.6% while the death rate from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl grew by a shocking 45%. In 1999, the age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. was 6.1 per 100,000 people and that soared to 21.7 in 2017.

The death rate is significantly higher for males than females. Between 1999 and 2017 the death rate among males climbed from 8.2 to 29.1 and for females, it increased from 3.9 to 14.4. At state-level, West Virginia had the highest age-adjusted death rate per 100,000 inhabitants at 57.8, followed by Ohio (46.3) and Pennsylvania (44.3). The CDC reported that 20 states and D.C. had age-adjusted overdose death rates statistically higher than the national rate.

The following infographic provides an overview of the grim trend and focuses specifically on the opioid categories responsible. While the overdose death rate from heroin and natural and semisynthetic opioids are cause for serious concern, the sharp rise in deaths due to synthetic opioids like fentanyl is truly alarming. The U.S. government recently warned that a surge in cocaine deaths can be attributed to the drug being laced with lethal levels of fentanyl which is up to 50 times more potent than heroin. Back in 1999, drugs like fentanyl were responsible for 0.3 deaths per 100,000 people and last year, that had risen to 9.

I am a Statista data journalist, covering technological, societal and media topics through visual representation. In fact, I love to write about all trending topics, illustrating patterns and trends in a quick, clear and meaningful way. Our work at Statista has been feature...